Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel

Winner of the Tata Literature Live! First Book (Fiction) 2020

Shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature

Shortlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award

Runner-up, the McKitterick Prize

Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction

Shortlisted for the Émile Guimet Prize for Asian Literature (French trans. by Elisabeth Peellaert)

One of Time magazine’s ‘The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time’

A New York Times Notable Book of 2020

One of Time magazine’s Must-Read Books

One of NPR’s Best Reads

One of Washington Post’s Best Thriller and Mystery Books

A Library Journal Best Crime Fiction pick

Featured as a The New York Times Editors’ Choice

A BBC Radio 2 Book Club with Jo Whiley pick

A Val McDermid New Blood pick

In this transporting debut novel, three friends venture into the most dangerous corners of a sprawling Indian city to find their missing classmate.

Down market lanes crammed with too many people, dogs, and rickshaws, past stalls that smell of cardamom and sizzling oil, below a smoggy sky that doesn’t let through a single blade of sunlight, and all the way at the end of the Purple metro line, lies a jumble of tin-roofed homes where nine-year-old Jai lives with his family. From his doorway, he can spot the glittering lights of the city’s fancy high-rises, and though his mother works as a maid in one, to him they seem a thousand miles away. Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line plunges readers deep into this neighbourhood to trace the unfolding of a tragedy through the eyes of a child as he has his first perilous collisions with an unjust and complicated wider world.

Jai drools outside sweet shops, watches too many reality police shows, and considers himself to be smarter than his friends Pari (though she gets the best grades) and Faiz (though Faiz has an actual job). When a classmate goes missing, Jai decides to use the crime-solving skills he has picked up from TV to find him. He asks Pari and Faiz to be his assistants, and together they draw up lists of people to interview and places to visit.

But what begins as a game turns sinister as other children start disappearing from their neighborhood. Jai, Pari, and Faiz have to confront terrified parents, an indifferent police force, and rumours of soul-snatching djinns. As the disappearances edge ever closer to home, the lives of Jai and his friends will never be the same again.

Drawing on real incidents and a spate of disappearances in metropolitan India, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is extraordinarily moving, flawlessly imagined, and a triumph of suspense. It captures the fierce warmth, resilience, and bravery that can emerge in times of trouble and carries the reader headlong into a community that, once encountered, is impossible to forget.

ORDER 

UK Waterstones, Foyles, Hive, Amazon UK

US IndieBound, Barnes & Noble, Amazon US, BAM

REVIEWS

“Rich with easy joy, Anappara’s writing announces the arrival of a literary supernova. Even before she had finished “Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line,” her novel-in-progress had won three literary awards. In the glowing reviews that are sure to come, no doubt much will be made of the fact that Anappara started out as a journalist in Mumbai and Delhi; her storytelling genius, it might be assumed, must be rooted in her reporter’s eye for detail. But that handy formula misses the heat and mystery of what Anappara creates. (Warning: If you begin reading the book in the morning, don’t expect to get anything done for the rest of the day.)”—Lorraine Adams, The New York Times Book Review

“Anappara is not interested in explaining, embellishing, refining, or simplifying her story — and certainly not for a white reading audience, or a “Global North” literary marketplace. Instead, she cracks the narrative open, critiques it, and tackles head-on the stereotypical “poverty porn” label lazily slapped onto works and writers from “Third-World countries” — cleverly, and through the creative use of a child narrator. Anappara’s Jai is endearing, entertaining, and earnest; he keeps you on the edge of your seat. He is curious, courageous, cheeky, and unabashedly, unapologetically speaking his mind, and the truth.”—Sana Goyal, Los Angeles Review of Books

“[Anappara] clearly has great knowledge of her motherland, a generous heart, and ability for empathy and a captivating literary style... A dazzling, wonderful book.”—Elif Shafak

“One of my 2020 reading highlights so far is Deepa Anappara’s wonderful debut novel Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line. There’s nothing quite like coming across a writer whose style is a world in itself, and this book is rich in story too. Set in India, it follows three self-appointed child detectives searching for a missing boy, drawing attention to the many children who go missing in Indian cities every day. It is jubilantly and astutely written, bursting with compassion for its characters and a sense of vivid adventure, at once both childlike and wise. Life lifts off every page.”—Diana Evans, Financial Times

“The choice of a child narrator, while notoriously hard to pull off convincingly, makes the novel a tour de force. Anappara inhabits the voice with disarming ease and swagger, she coins a vocabulary that’s not only idiosyncratic but also unapologetically Indian. Although the children she writes about are hardened by the vicissitudes of their grim existence, she reminds us, with a sly interjection every now and then, of their capacity to create happiness out of the smallest things, even out of thin air.”—Somak Ghoshal, Mint

“This moving and stylish book pulls off a difficult trick. It is an engaging, amusing tale, powered by Jai’s ebullient personality; at the same time it is an insightful portrait of the underside of 21st-century India.”—The Economist

“Jai is a wonderful narrator, fully imagined … and in Anappara’s hands, his world takes shape with care yet without sentiment, from the ghost of the ragpickers’ boss to the fear that bulldozers will raze their homes. Anappara … brings both knowledge and respect to her fiction. Her characters are free to make terrible mistakes, unshackled to the necessity of a neat ending.”—Nilanjana Roy, Financial Times

“This is an empathetic story of disappearing children in India told from a child’s point of view. This fictional account of a serious problem is told with humor, grace and tension – giving a sense of the overcrowded slums and the friendship, suspicion and love found within them. It is amazing that this is a debut novel.”—Edith Chapin, vice president and executive editor, NPR News

“The vivid, unruly novel Anappara wrote defies easy classification. Given the sometimes capricious exploits of its young investigators, "Djinn Patrol On The Purple Line" could conceivably be shelved in the YA mystery section. Yet Anappara also plays in a self-aware manner with the narrative; for instance, interspersing victims’ … accounts of their disappearances within the main story. By novel's end, the tale darkens into urban noir. Even so, Jai's pliant voice retains a stubborn cheerfulness, a will to believe in the possibility of deliverance in this fallen world.”—Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air, NPR

“Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara is a story told with skill. It has the pace of a thriller and the heart of a children’s tale. You rush through the pages wanting resolution, but you also dither because you don’t want to leave the company of its characters. Here is a novel that creates empathy. It will make you observe—the urchin selling flowers, the bai scrubbing your floors, the child handing over your ironed clothes—with slightly kinder eyes.”—Nandini Nair, Open magazine

“Djinn Patrol ... transcends its burdens by being exceptionally well-written, thoughtfully structured and, above all, sensitive to the precise individuality and mental acuity of its characters. Its world is also beautifully described, from the alleys of Bhoot Bazaar to the big city's main railway station … Anappara doesn't pull punches when it comes to illustrating our constant complicity in perpetuating dehumanising poverty.”—Sonal Shah, India Today

“Sometimes, voice is all ... it’s their singular voices that give...characters their life and complexity. So it is with Jai, a 9-year-old Indian boy who’s the narrator and main character of Deepa Anappara’s extraordinary debut novel.”—Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post

“... a debut novel that is teeming with life despite its deadly subject matter ... Anappara shifts skilfully between different narrative voices throughout her novel ... a masterful eye-opener to the casual cruelties of contemporary India.”—Sarah Gilmartin, The Irish Times

“In channelling complex social and political realities through Jai’s voice, Anappara creates an endearing and highly engaging narrator to navigate us through the dark underbelly of modern India.”—Hannah Beckerman, The Observer

“A major strength of the book is Anappara’s grip on (vivid) detail and her masterful use of language. Effortlessly, she draws pictures of contrast — of poverty and richness; of squalor and spotlessness; of deprivation and plenty.”—Aradhika Sharma, Tribune

“As a one-time journalist in Delhi, Deepa Anappara knows of what she writes, and her prose, richly punctuated by local idiom, is exceptionally vivid.  She evokes the variety, individuality and vitality of the characters in Jai’s community with skill and humour, whilst underlining the appalling conditions in which they live. … This is the kind of fiction that beguiles whilst packing a huge political punch.”—Rachel Hore, Book Oxygen

“More than a thriller, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is a moving coming-of-age story, one in which an often invisible form of childhood is centered. While not softening the blows of poverty—the hunger, the neglect, the uncertainty—Anappara’s vision of this community is vibrant, rather than defined by lack.”—Bridey Heing, Paste magazine

“There’s an almost Harry Potter–ish vibe to the relationship among the three intrepid kids, and Jai’s voice is irresistible: funny, vivid, smart, and yet always believably a child’s point of view. Anappara paints all of her characters, even the lost ones, with deep empathy, and her prose is winningly exuberant. But she also brings a journalist’s eye to her story, one that is based on the shocking numbers of children who disappear from Indian cities every day.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Jai is an utterly convincing voice, a lively, cheerful, cheeky boy yet through his eyes Anappara skilfully reveals the harsh reality beneath; the police corruption and stark inequality in a country where 180 children are said to go missing each day. An outstanding debut.”—The Bookseller

“Anappara’s witty, resonant debut tracks a series of child disappearances from an Indian slum through the eyes of a nine-year-old boy… The prose perfectly captures all the characters’ youthful voices… Anappara’s complex and moving tale showcases a strong talent.”—Publishers Weekly

“In this thrilling reading experience, Deepa Anappara creates a drama of childhood that is as wild as it is intimate. Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is an entertaining, wonderful debut that will earn all the acclaim it is sure to get.”—Chigozie Obioma, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of An Orchestra of Minorities

“Storytelling at its best—not just sympathetic, vivid, and beautifully detailed, but completely assured and deft… We care about these characters from the first page and our concern for them is richly repaid.”—Anne Enright, Man Booker Prize–winning author of The Gathering

“A stunningly original tale… I stayed up late every night until I finished, reluctant to part from Deepa Anappara’s heart-stealing characters.”—Etaf Rum, New York Times bestselling author of A Woman Is No Man

“The children at the heart of this story will stay with you long after you turn the last page… a wonderful debut.”—Christie Watson, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Language of Kindness

“A magnificent achievement: the endeavours of the Djinn Patrol offer us a captivating world of wit, warmth and heartbreak, beautifully crafted through a child's unique perspective.”—Mahesh Rao, author of Polite Society

“Extraordinarily good, deeply moving and thought provoking with brilliant characterisation. A very important book.”—Harriet Tyce, author of Blood Orange

“A dazzling journey into the heart of India and its most vulnerable citizens - its impoverished and disenfranchised children. A novel at once brimming with the wonder of childhood innocence, and constrained by the heartache of living amidst injustice and prejudice. Deepa Anappara shows us a modern, dangerously divided India that has long needed to be seen.”—Nazanine Hozar, author of Aria

“A profoundly emphatic work of creative genius that will stay with you forever.”—Sonia Faleiro, author of Beautiful Thing

“Created from whole cloth, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is a richly textured rendition of a world little seen in Indian literature. There is no desire to smooth and tidy in fiction what is untidy in life, but instead there is a pay off for the reader in a story that is as quietly troubling as it is convincing.”—Mridula Koshy, author of If It is Sweet

“Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is unlike any book I have ever read—surprising, vividly imagined, and full of humor and humanity—and I fell head over heels for Jai, the police-show-obsessed narrator on a quest to find his missing classmate. Deepa Anappara is a writer of rare insight and a sure-footed storyteller. This book will charm you on one page, and rip your heart out on the next.”—Amy Jones, author of Every Little Piece of Me

“Deepa Anappara takes us inside urban India with astonishing specificity, into a funny and heartbreaking child’s world of wonder and cruelty. Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is addictive and unforgettable. Once you’re in Jai’s neighbourhood you don't want to leave.”—Todd Babiak, author of The Empress of Idaho